High on a street lamp in the 20th arrondissement in eastern Paris, the city has installed the first noise radar that can measure the noise level of moving vehicles and identify their license plate data.
“Excessive noise makes people sick. For our health and quality of life… The first acoustic radar target is to automatically fine vehicles that are too noisy,” Paris Deputy Mayor David Belliard wrote in a tweet.
In the next few months, the city will be testing whether radar can unambiguously identify the license plates of motorcycles or cars that emit noisy noises. Then it will have to be formally approved by the authorities by the end of 2022.
No fines will be imposed for now, but Paris intends to start implementing the fine from early 2023, as the government deploys more noise-detecting radars in other French cities.